Getty Brooklyn Nets guard Caris LeVert
Brooklyn Nets forward, Caris LeVert hurt his leg in a gruesome injury against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With less than four seconds left in the first half of the Nets’ game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, LeVert leaped into the air in an attempt to block a fast break layup.
LeVert’s fell hard on his right leg and held his leg in noticeable pain. Levert was carted off the court on a stretcher.
Warning: Graphic video content
Our thoughts and prayers are with Caris LeVert. We wish you a speedy recovery.
via: @clippittv pic.twitter.com/U2oJj2kxze
— Basketball Society (@BBallSociety_) November 13, 2018
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Levert, 24, was having a monster season for the Brooklyn Nets. He entered this evening’s contest against the T-Wolves averaging 19 points on 48 % shooting.
The 20th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, LeVert was drafted by the Indiana Pacers and promptly shipped to the Brooklyn Nets in a draft day deal that sent Thaddeus Young to the Pacers.
Some basketball purists scratched their heads on that move.
LeVert has caught the eyes of the NBA’s elite, too. “Caris LeVert is tough,” said Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr.
“He’s a slasher, ball-handler. He can get into the paint. He’s big, so he can finish in the paint.”
Fast forward to 2018, earlier this fall, Brooklyn declined a Timberwolves inquiry to include LeVert in trade talks involving Jimmy Butler.
Brooklyn Nets’ Caris LeVert is looking more & more like #ClutchLeVertEVERYDAY! pic.twitter.com/8S1AiDT54n
— Brandon Robinson (@ScoopB) October 25, 2018
While LeVert was laying down in pain after the gruesome leg injury, you may have noticed a shaken, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. LeVert and Hollis-Jefferson are also close friends.
Covering the Nets off and on the the last few years, I’d see the two share their Uber in their commute to the Barclays Center on game days.
With LeVert out assumedly for a while, Hollis-Jefferson will now see deeper minutes in the Nets’ rotation.
Second-year wing Rondae Hollis-Jefferson will figure more prominently in the Nets rotation (Getty)
He’ll need to adjust quick at the small forward position. In Saturday’s 116-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Hollis-Jeffeson totaled two points, three rebounds, one assist and one block in 17 minutes of action.
He recently returned from injury and per CBS Fantasy Sports: he has yet to find any sort of rhythm on either end of the floor.
Now is the time to step up. At the end of last season, Hollis-Jefferson discussed his adjustments to the NBA game last season. “The biggest adjustment for me has definitely been mental, in terms of what my mindset is,” Rondae-Hollis Jefferson shared with me via Basketball Society Online.
“The way I’m thinking about things and thinking about the game. I’m trying to approach everything a little differently, and be more patient and poised, less impulsive. I’ve always had tremendous confidence in myself but you know, in game situations, emotions running high, sometimes it’s easy to get off track a little. This off-season I worked really hard at being more patient and really letting the game come to me, not forcing things and especially not holding onto mistakes that happen on the court. So this season it’s really been about just really trying to keep that “next play mentality” for an entire 48 minutes, not getting stuck on it if something goes wrong or dwelling on anything. I think being able to get better at that has helped my confidence a lot.”
The Nets had high expectations for LeVert this season. “We all had a sense he was going to be really good because his preseason was really good,” Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson told the New York Post’s Brian Lewis.
“His practice time this offseason was really good. He’s reached another level of understanding of the league, understanding of himself. He understands the pace of the game better.”
He has absolutely turned the corner in year three,” Nets play-by-play broadcaster, Ian Eagle told D & Davis Show’s Ken Davis and Demonze Spruiel.
“There is just a confidence in him. A conviction that he can do some things on the court that maybe he didn’t show he can do consistently in his first couple years in the NBA.
Meanwhile, in Levert’s absence, Hollis-Jefferson will have an increased role with Brooklyn moving forward.
A new father, Hollis-Jefferson surely has motivation for himself and for his friend and teammate, Caris LeVert.